Honda and Toyota’s sales drop while Kia, Hyunda and Subaru sees increases

November 4, 2009 – 11:47 am – No Comment

hyundai

In the past month, auto sales for imported cars were all over the place.

Japanese staples Toyota and Honda have found themselves losing for the past few months with sales declines. Toyota had a 5.8% drop in sales of Toyota branded autos when compared to October 2008. Honda’s U.S. sales dropped 4% for October 2009 from October 2008 also.

It’s not all bad news for the auto companies though. Import brand Subaru saw quite the improvement in sales from October 2008 to October 2009; a jump of 40%. The Outback station wagon was redesigned for 2010 and led the way for the company in sales. Sales of the wagon were up 175% from October 2008. The company’s second most popular car, the Forester had a 13% gain.

Kia also saw quite a jump in sales. The Korean car manufacturer had a 45% gain in sales for year over year sales for October. It sold 22,490 automobiles in October 2009 and sold 15,483 in October 2008. Its sales were led by the Kia Forte and the Borrego.

Hyundai also saw a jump in sales. In October, Hyundai sold just over 31,000 cars; a nearly 50% increase from October 2008. Most of the cars that were sold in October are 2010 models. Hyundai is a joint company with Kia.

It seems as though people are wanting to buy cheaper cars and with the quality of Korean cars quickly rising, there are more and more reasons to buy one of these over the more expensive Japanese cars and (in some cases) lower quality American cars.